Headed to Fort Bliss!

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Just found out we will be headed to Fort Bliss around May and I know nothing about Texas! I am from Illinois and have been in Oklahoma since December for training. I do love the heat but I have a feeling that will be tested in El Paso! Any information you all have will be invaluable! I'm already looking forward to having more options for going out to eat since Fort Sill doesn't have much to offer on post but any and all recent information is appreciated!

If anyone has been to college in the area, that would be a huge help as well! Looking forward to hearing what you ladies have to say!

We have friends at Bliss but they live in Las Crusces NM which is about an hour from El Paso. They love it in that area and she finished college at a NM school. Sorry that's probably zero help regarding the actual post but if you guys don't mind a commute, NM isn't very far away!

This is our first time living on post in OK but we really like it! I know everyone keeps saying you can save a lot of money by living off post but my husband likes being able to come home for lunch, even if it's only for a half hour or so. And it's nice to be able to stop at the commissary quick if we need something.

It's the small things like how loud it is here that intrigue me. I never realized how different post life would be!

I'm from El Paso, but have only been on post a handful of times, so I'll try to help the best that I can. But at the moment, El Paso is booming! Every time I go home, there are just more restaurants, more shopping, more things to go to. And UTEP, the local university, is becoming more recognized across the state. It's a pretty good school, most of my best friends went there after high school. EP also has a large community college system- I believe there are about 5 or 6 EPCC campuses across the city so it makes it accessible to everyone. EP is also growing in recognition for their medical schools- I think Texas Tech has a medical school located in EP. There are TONS of options for education in the city, its pretty astounding.

Nightlife, the culture, and various attractions are also fun, it just takes a bit of research to figure out what there is to do. I do agree that Las Cruces is not that far...but I would not make that commute. It's not bad or anything, but the 50min-1hr drive grows a bit when you factor in that I-10 is EP's only freeway and during rush hour, you hit traffic from post, downtown, UTEP, and other congested exits. I live on the "west side" of EP which is basically in between Cruces and Ft. Bliss and traffic in both directions is a bit hectic during those times. I often say that EP didn't anticipate becoming as big as it has when they developed around the freeway.

As for the heat... yea it gets a bit bad. Summers are around 90s-100s, with temp dropping to 80 and 70 at night.

Not sure what else to add, but let me know if you have additional questions.

Thanks so much! I am excited about continuing my college education and am SO excited about the options you mentioned available in El Paso. Even the fact that I might get to actually use the 4 years of Spanish I took in high school is exciting!

Yeah, commuting isn't our favorite idea but it's good to know there are good neighborhoods if we can't get on post. It's more of a humid heat, yeah? That can be tough but the summers in Illinois were humid so hopefully it will be similar to what I am used to. And no snow?!

We are at Fort Bliss. We live in one of the military housing communities off post. I prefer it to living on post -- it's a similar commute to living on post & we get all of the benefits of living on post, but we're also closer to all of the off post things.

It is painfully dry here. I was on two allergy medications for the first six months. I'm off of them now, but I sneeze. A lot. It's about 80 degrees right now -- so winter is over and it's summer now . It does snow in the winter -- some of the time. When it snowed in January, our view of the Franklin Mountains was absolutely breathtaking! The wind will take anything that you leave outside unrestrained -- some people have even had parts of their roof taken in my neighborhood.

I hear a lot of complaints about the college systems here -- both UTEP & EPCC. But, they are very prominent.

I always thought Texas was really humid. I can handle a dry heat! And being from Illinois, I am so ready to be done with winter for awhile!

I often say that EP didn't anticipate becoming as big as it has when they developed around the freeway.

I don't think Bliss anticipated becoming as big as it is either. I've been trying to do some reading and they say the area has just been growing and growing. But supposedly the crime rate is super low? Hard to believe if the city is as big as they say. We're from smaller cities so big city life will definitely be an adjustment!

I always thought Texas was really humid. I can handle a dry heat! And being from Illinois, I am so ready to be done with winter for awhile!

I don't think Bliss anticipated becoming as big as it is either. I've been trying to do some reading and they say the area has just been growing and growing. But supposedly the crime rate is super low? Hard to believe if the city is as big as they say. We're from smaller cities so big city life will definitely be an adjustment!

A lot of people moving into town actually get upset when they hear about crime on the news. There is definitely crime -- I don't watch the local news often because I don't enjoy hearing about it or being paranoid about it. And it's different crime than what I'm used to hearing from back home (back home it was usually domestic violence, Snapped-esque crimes, it's not like that here). Because El Paso is so big, I've always assumed that they've claimed it's safe because crime rates usually go off of a per capita rating and for the population size, there isn't an abundance of crime -- if that makes sense.

I always thought Texas was really humid. I can handle a dry heat! And being from Illinois, I am so ready to be done with winter for awhile!

I don't think Bliss anticipated becoming as big as it is either. I've been trying to do some reading and they say the area has just been growing and growing. But supposedly the crime rate is super low? Hard to believe if the city is as big as they say. We're from smaller cities so big city life will definitely be an adjustment!

Maybe those statistics are for a certain area and not even the city as a whole. Usually big cities have large suburban areas, downtown areas etc then all that evens out the numbers due to the more upscale neighborhoods. We cannot be crime safe anywhere on Earth, stats are more of like for probability/likelihood. Towns near military bases tend to attract some bad folks, I believe. No wonder you see a pawn shop on every other corner for a reason. Just like you stated, Bliss is becoming really big. Sometimes it gets pretty overwhelming but don't isolate yourself. I used to think it would be easy to make friends where they have a lot of people but because of the transient nature of the military, it can get very difficult. TX has a lot of dry heat, some people have sinus infections and other respiratory issues all the time for that reason but everybody is different. Everybody complains about the weather in TX but I don't get it...I would take dry heat over winters with 4 ft snow any day. Shoveling snow and worrying about how to get to work on time is actually pretty time consuming and nerve-wracking in the long run. I didn't have a problem with the weather in TX but I didn't like it there for many other reasons. I do wish you the best of luck!